Tag Archives: Samsung

Ask anyone what Near-field communication (NFC) technology does and they’ll tell you it processes mobile payments. Now Samsung is going to give NFC a whole new meaning with TecTiles.

TecTiles are little “stickers” with a simple NFC tag inside. Each sticker lets the user “program” the sticker to have a specific response whenever any device with an NFC chip passes nearby. You designate a TecTile to perform a specific function like open a website, change a device setting, make a call, download a document, or whatever else you’ve told the sticker to do. When you tap the screen above the TecTile it will do what you programmed it to.

Unlike QR codes, NFC doesn’t require launching an app or using your phone’s camera — just put your phone on top of it and hit “OK.”

We hear the app is very easy to use, and within seconds we were able to program the TecTile with simple commands like phoning a specific number. As long as you don’t “lock” the TecTile, you can re-set it to other programs.

Samsung’s TecTile app runs on any Samsung phone with an NFC chip, including the Samsung Galaxy S 3 and Samsung Galaxy S 2, the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S, and the Galaxy S Blaze. The TecTile app will be available in Google Play. You can purchase stickers in packs of five for $14.99 from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Hey, T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 2 owners: your Android 4.0.3 is ready for you. If you want it, you’ve got to go and get it yourself. Samsung requires you use their Kies software from a computer to download and install the update, so it’s not available directly to your cell phone.

Now if you want to use it, you’ll need to work a little more to find what’s different about this Android version. Samsung’s TouchWiz touch interface looks pretty much the same as the last version, so the changes won’t be blatantly obvious.

The Android 4.0 update incorporates the majority of the new features Google introduced with the Ice Cream Sandwich version for new devices. Learn how to install ICS on your phone from T-Mobile’s support page. To learn more about all the changes included in the new OS, T-Mobile has put together a detailed “Top 10 things to know about TouchWiz Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS): Samsung Galaxy S II” page on its site as well.

Intel is doing what it can to stand up to multi-core market dominators like Samsung, NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Intel’s general manager of mobile and communications Mike Bell acknowledged that Intel has supported multi-core chips since Android 2.3.4 but noted that internal testing had shown that multi-core chips sometimes run slower than single-core models. He said they’ve concluded that, in order to address this problem, Android needs to be more compatible with multi-core processors.

“If you take a look a lot of cell phone on the market, when you turn on the second core or having the second core there [on die], the [current] leakage is high enough and their power threshold is low enough because of the size of the case that it isn’t entirely clear you get much of a benefit to turning the second core on,” Bell claimed. “We ran our own numbers and [in] some of the use cases we’ve seen, having a second core is actually a detriment, because of the way some of the people have not implemented their thread scheduling.”

Bell also said that he has “taken a look at the multiple core implementations in the market, and frankly, in a thermal and/or power constrained environment – what has been implemented – it isn’t obvious to me you really get the advantage for the size and the cost of what’s going into that part.”

Intel isn’t talking about a deadline for the delivery of a multi-core Atom processor. Bell would only say that the company is investing in “software to fix the scheduler and fix the threading so if we do multi-core products it actually takes advantage of it.”

Google’s Android director Andy Rubin knows and he took to Twitter to brag about it. Perhaps in an effort to take some of the attention away from Apple’s WWDC this week, Rubin decided to let his Twitter followers know that are more than 900,000 activations of Android per day.

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Rubin also used his Twitter message to deny rumors that he was leaving the company for the startup CloudCar. “No plans to leave Google,” he tweeted. “Oh, and just for meme completeness—there are over 900,000 android devices activated each day :-).”

One of the biggest problems users have with choosing an Android phone over another platform is figuring out which OS is going to give the best performance with which type of phone. A number of companies, including OpenSignalMaps, have been trying to quantify the problem by analyzing the amount of fragmentation in the market.

Using data from 681,900 devices that downloaded OpenSignalMaps software over the past six months, they found 3,997 distinct Android devices running its app. This is a great chart showing the spread:

Each rectangle represents a unique Android device. The big green rectangle in the upper left is the Samsung Galaxy S II - by far the most popular Android phone in the study.

This shows an incredible number of Android version/display resolution combinations. Analysts at OpenSignalMaps predict that number will continue to grow. Their report states: “Android has shown commitment to make it easier to target multiple screen sizes – by introducing the (perhaps ironically named) fragments APIs in 2011 which makes it easier to turn view elements into modules.”

OpenSignalMaps also took a look at the version of Android each device was running:

More than half of all Android phones are still running version 2.3 Gingerbread, and Gingerbread is all of 18 months old. The newest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, barely shows on the chart.

Since Google’s Android is free and open for use by any hardware manufacturer, there are thousands of different devices running the OS. “Android fragmentation” is the term given to the spread of different versions of the Android OS across all devices.

So what does this mean? It’s a really good situation if you want more choice in your hardware. But it's really bad if you want timely software updates or a guarantee the latest and greatest apps will work on your device.

The OpenSignalMaps report concluded that the benefits of building apps for Android far outweigh the drawbacks. ”One of the joys of developing for Android is you have no idea who’ll end up using your app. With many devices under $100 unsubsidized, Android phones and tablets are able to reach a market that can’t afford netbooks. For the majority of the world’s population smartphones (and not computers) will be the must-have devices.”

In case you were wondering where Apple fits in, they don’t have this problem. iOS only runs on one phone, the iPhone, and the latest version still supports the three-year-old iPhone 3GS. Microsoft is following the Apple model somewhat. They require Windows Phone manufacturers meet strict requirements to guarantee that updates go through to all devices in a timely fashion.

Developer Michael DeGusta created the visualization of what he called Android’s fragmented update history. He wrote, “Ever since the iPhone turned every smartphone into a blank slate, the value of a phone is largely derived from the software it can run and how well the phone can run it. When you’re making a 2 year commitment to a device, it’d be nice to have some way to tell if the software was going to be remotely current in a year or, heck, even a month.”

During the Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung announced that the company was working on merging its Bada mobile operating system with the open-source Tizen operating system.

Samsung is currently the second-largest cellphone maker in the world, with devices powered by four major operating systems. By focusing on its own operating system, Samsung has more control over its devices and a greater opportunity to differentiate its products from its competitors. By merging the two operating systems, Samsung is hoping that existing Bada developers will transition to Tizen.

While still in development, the Tizen operating system is open-source and backed by Intel and the Linux Foundation. When the Bada integration is complete, Tizen will support programs written with Samsung’s Bada SDK, including both new and previously published apps.

Tizen, according to reports, features a program called Application Compatibility Layer (ACL), which enables the device to run applications built using different code. ACL is similar to RIM’s Android player for its BlackBerry PlayBook.

A new video has been released that demonstrates the Samsung/Intel-backed Tizen OS running Android apps.

Open Mobile, the company behind ACL, claims Android apps will be able to run on a Tizen-powered device with 100% compatibility, and stated that ACL features the same level of responsiveness users would expect on a device that runs on Android OS. The company would also like to make sure that the ACL will be integrated into smartphones and tablets by vendors and not end users.

As usual, there probably will be a few bugs to be worked out in the field, but all indicators are that Tizen is a well-designed and truly open source alternative to Google's Android.

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The latest results are in for NPD Group’s monthly Mobile Phone Track service. It looks like Apple retails it’s top seat as the #1 smartphone vendor in the U.S.

Apple’s market ownership continues to strengthen. It’s market share increased by 7% in the first quarter year-over-year. In the past year, Apple’s iPhones were responsible for 29% of all smartphone sales in the U.S. Samsung with Its Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tablets seems to be the only company breathing anywhere down Apple’s neck.

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Apple and Samsung together are responsible for 53% of all smartphones sold in the U.S. LG, HTC, Motorola and RIM sales continue to fall.

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“Samsung is the only market leader from the feature phone era to transition to market leadership in the smartphone era in the U.S.,” said NPD analyst Ross Rubin. “Its broad carrier support and advertising – particularly in the ascendant pre-paid segment – have helped it achieve the highest market share among Android handset providers in the U.S.”

NPD also reported that Google’s Android operating system is the highest selling mobile platform. Android use is trending in the right direction, and it regained some of the ground it had previously lost to Apple.

Android smartphone sales grew 24% over the last quarter of 2011 to 61% of the market. Apple iPhone sales are down significantly. The high of 41% in the last quarter is now 29%, a decline of 29%.

Apple is still the People’s Phone. Regardless of what the market share number shows, Apple’s iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS still hold the top three spots in NPD’s overall handset ranking for first quarter of 2012. Samsung’s Galaxy S2 and HTC’s EVO 3D round out the top five.

Rubin tries to explain what the poll number show: “After some release of pent-up demand from customers adopting the iPhone 4S, coupled with the company’s strength in the holiday season, Apple’s share fell in the first quarter, as we’ve often see it do in the quarter following its introduction of a new handset. Now that the iPhone is available on Sprint, though, the increased carrier coverage has created a higher baseline for Apple’s share than we have seen in the past.”

Recently released figures from Google about the relative number of devices running a given version of Android are showing an interesting increase in the number of active Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices. The numbers, which are based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play within a two week period (ending on 1st May 2012), show that just under 5% of all Android devices now run Android 4.0, of these, the vast majority run 4.0.3 or 4.0.4 rather than 4.0, 4.0.1 or 4.0.2.

Samsung has come through on its promise to release the upgrade to OS 4.0 for Samsung Galaxy S2 on May 3rd.

See an actual Samsung Galaxy S2 On OS 4.0

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Google’s Android is now the leading OS platform with 51% of the market. According to a recent MobiLens quarterly survey of mobile subscribers, Android use is growing at almost four times the rate of its closest competitor Apple, that services 30.7% of consumers with their iOS.

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Android’s increase of 3.7% outpaces Apple’s mere 1% to give it the majority of the market. The increase for both of these companies comes at the expense of RIM that dropped 3.7% to 12.3% and Microsoft that registered a 0.8% decrease to 3.9% of the smartphone market. While Symbian held its ground at 1.4%.

These number reflect changes in market share since the poll was done in December 2011.

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Google won’t be celebrating a long term victory just yet. Both Microsoft’s Windows 8 and RIM’s Blackberry 10 are due for release in the fall, but are already plagued by negative opinions. The rumor that Microsoft’s new platform might not support the current hardware lineup has sent a ripple of anger and confusion through the Windows Phone community.

BlackBerry 10 may be the best OS version RIM has ever produced, and it’s telling this to the world right now. But at little more than 12% of the current market and a plethora of technical criticism about its lack of gadgets and apps, Blackberry has a lot of PR ahead.

Unless Microsoft and RIM take the market by surprise, it looks like Google and Apple are going to battle it out with each other and continue to eat up their minor competitors’ markets.